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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT AMERICAN COLLECTION
Lot 18
Fine and Rare Dome Headed Club, Fiji Islands
21 November – 5 December 2024, 12:00 PST
Online, Los AngelesUS$30,000 - US$40,000
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Fine and Rare Dome Headed Club, Fiji Islands
bulibuli
Wood
Length 37 1/2in (95.3cm)
Provenance
Tribal Art Emporium, London, 13 November 2015
Private Collection, United States
Finely carved in hard wood, most likely without the use of metal tools, the shaft with a rare human glyph with an elongated torso, intricately incised Fijian decorations throughout the shaft which flares out at the top below a domed head with incised nodules; exquisite, shiny honey-brown patina with wear indicative of significant age and use.
Fijians often commissioned artists from Tonga to carve and decorate their weapons due to their exceptional artistic abilities. The elongated human glyph on the shaft just below the dome head does not appear to have Tongan attributes and, as such, could be an extremely rare or possibly unique human glyph with Fijian attributes.
Bulibulis with incised decorations covering the shaft are rare. For related examples, see Furgus Clunie, Yalo i Viti, Fiji Museum, Suva, fig. 182, an example sold at Bonhams, London, 26 April 2007, Lot 480. Another sold at Sotheby's, New York, 11 May 2012, Lot 209, now in the Venice Ligabue Collection.
Wood
Length 37 1/2in (95.3cm)
Provenance
Tribal Art Emporium, London, 13 November 2015
Private Collection, United States
Finely carved in hard wood, most likely without the use of metal tools, the shaft with a rare human glyph with an elongated torso, intricately incised Fijian decorations throughout the shaft which flares out at the top below a domed head with incised nodules; exquisite, shiny honey-brown patina with wear indicative of significant age and use.
Fijians often commissioned artists from Tonga to carve and decorate their weapons due to their exceptional artistic abilities. The elongated human glyph on the shaft just below the dome head does not appear to have Tongan attributes and, as such, could be an extremely rare or possibly unique human glyph with Fijian attributes.
Bulibulis with incised decorations covering the shaft are rare. For related examples, see Furgus Clunie, Yalo i Viti, Fiji Museum, Suva, fig. 182, an example sold at Bonhams, London, 26 April 2007, Lot 480. Another sold at Sotheby's, New York, 11 May 2012, Lot 209, now in the Venice Ligabue Collection.
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